³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

On international and intergovernmental co-operation, any international visit that I have been on of late—whether that has been to Brussels, Dublin, Poland or Germany—has involved discussion about the country’s particular response to the situation in Ukraine. As I set out in my introductory remarks, it has been evident to me that the movement of people is the largest on the European continent since the second world war. People could not have prepared for the crisis, and they are responding to it as well as possible. We all face a Europe-wide challenge, and we are all looking to examples of best practice elsewhere to see where other countries, including our own, are trying to ensure that they are responding in the best possible way for those who have fled war.

There is very strong co-operation and discussion with Welsh Government colleagues, for instance. We are, on responding, very much on the same page as they are on. Obviously, there is a difference in the scale of people’s arrival and, from the discussions that we have had with the Irish Government, we know that there is a difference in the scale of arrival in the upward direction in Ireland. Ireland is one of the European nations that waived visa requirements, so a very large number of Ukrainians have arrived there, compared with the number in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK.

There are shared challenges in ensuring that our response is appropriate in respect of access to housing and services and other similar issues. The challenges that we face in Scotland are not unique.

The financial situation that Ms Minto has described is a huge worry to me. I know that it is a major worry to local authorities in Scotland and that that came through in evidence last week. It is also a huge worry to Welsh Government colleagues and, I believe, to the Local Government Association in England.

Ms Minto is right: local authority tariff support reduced from £10,500 per person to £5,900 per person as of January. Thereafter, there is no year 2 tariff support for local authorities, unlike in the Syria and Afghan schemes. The support has been replaced by a one-off fund of £150 million across the UK. We still have to understand what the allocation will be, but our assumption is that the funding will be a tenth of the value of the year 1 tariff funding per person.

The £10,500 already represented a stretch for our local authority partners, which we are asking to provide a significant amount of education, housing, social work and trauma support—you name it. In the conversation that I mentioned with my counterpart in the UK Government, Felicity Buchan, she suggested that local government should or could be doing even more. That was met with some frustration from me because, while we are asking our local authorities to do more, people are still arriving, and we are seeing funding from the UK Government to support that dropping to as low as a tenth for the year coming.

I hope that it is not too late and that we can impress on Treasury colleagues the fact that, although they have done a huge amount in respect of the military support grant—I take my hat off to the UK Government for the world-leading military support that it has provided to Ukraine; credit where credit is due for that. We must ensure that we are appropriately supporting the humanitarian response. I have grave concerns that the cut in funding will mean that the expectation of meeting the humanitarian concerns will not be met.

I am happy to bring in my colleague Will Tyler-Greig at this stage.

A conference was held at the Scottish Parliament with heritage and cultural organisations from Ukraine in which we heard—you and the convener heard these, as well—harrowing accounts of cultural vandalism and destruction of monuments and other sites of cultural significance in Ukraine. There is clear targeting of those sites by Russian forces to try to wipe Ukraine and everything that Ukraine stands for from the face of the earth. I suggest that investigating that should be in the category of investigating for a war crime. We will continue to work directly with colleagues from Ukraine on the culture side on what we can do to support that.

On rebuilding, when I was in Brussels at the end of last year, I had a meeting with the European Committee of the Regions about what we can do in partnership on the rebuilding work. That committee has taken a leading role to co-ordinate the recovery support. We have not yet had advanced discussions because we are still in the war situation, but we will be looking to do what we can, depending on what the demand is, to offer special practical support or otherwise, to ensure that Ukraine can rebuild when the war is over and it has maintained its borders and boundaries.

Again, as I did in my opening remarks, I pay tribute to the third sector, as I have done to our local authority partners. The Scottish Refugee Council is a key partner for us with regard to implementation, the welcome arrangements and delivery of our response; it enables us to ensure that everything that we do is sense checked. In individual communities and across Scotland, third sector organisations—as they do for people who are already resident in Scotland—do a phenomenal job to help and support people who have arrived from Ukraine.

I have seen wonderful work in my constituency of Airdrie and Shotts and in wider North Lanarkshire, as well as across Scotland, when I have been out on visits to places such as Aberfeldy. The community there has done an incredible job of providing help and support for people from Ukraine.

As regards whether third sector organisations are getting the necessary support, I would say that they can always come and speak to us if they need more support. We provide funding to third sector interfaces across Scotland to make sure that money and support can be distributed. Will, do you have the exact figures?

The situation is under constant review, as would be expected. In my most recent statement to Parliament, I confirmed that the supersponsor scheme would remain paused. Discussions will be had with the programme delivery board in the coming weeks and a decision on the current status will be required this month. I will make sure that the committee is furnished with the outcome of those.

You are absolutely right that, sadly, everybody expected at the beginning that the war was going to be short. We have to pay tribute to the resilience and the bravery of the people of Ukraine for the fact that they have defended their country so incredibly well against the illegal Russian invasion—of course, it is the latest invasion, because Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014. I think that everybody’s expectation was that it was going to be a short and temporary situation. We are now in a very different situation. We are approaching a year from the start of the war, which will be a poignant moment. I am happy to talk about some aspects of what we are planning to mark that particularly tricky anniversary for Ukrainians who are in Scotland.

As a result, there has obviously had to be a change in approach, and you have seen that in the way that the supersponsor scheme has been organised. We had a review of the supersponsor scheme when I had to pause it due to the unprecedented demand that was placed on it during the summer months, when it was the only viable route through which to come into the United Kingdom. There were 16 interventions proposed as part of the review, which was led by Professor Linda Bauld. In the very short time since that review was published, we have made significant progress on the majority of those areas, including the £50 million fund to bring forward longer-term accommodation, support for people through the private rented sector and modular accommodation. We are doing a number of things to make the scheme sustainable and durable for the long term.

Sadly, Ukrainians will have to be in Scotland, for their safety, for longer than was anticipated. We will continue to ensure that we are doing everything possible, reflecting on some of the areas that the head of the consul office in Edinburgh, Mr Kuslii, has suggested, and reflecting on work that we are doing with our local authority partners and the third sector.

A number of events, including church services, are planned for that week by the Government, the City of Edinburgh Council and the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. There will be an event in Parliament that will be co-sponsored by me and the Presiding Officer on the Tuesday night. On the Thursday, which is the day before the anniversary, the Scottish Government will lead a debate on the issue. There will be wreath laying and processions, not just here in Edinburgh but across Scotland. There will be a number of events that will, I hope, allow the people who are here from Ukraine to see the solidarity of feeling that exists in Scotland.

I also hope that the events will remind people across Scotland that the war continues. As you say, convener, there are more than 13,000 people who still hold a visa to travel who are yet to travel. We still have people arriving from Ukraine every day, although the scheme has been paused. It is important to ensure that the issue is high in the public’s consciousness and that people are aware that it requires significant intervention and support. Not least, the events are for our friends from Ukraine who are here and who have suffered great trauma. They will still be worried about family members or will have lost family members and they will want to make sure that they mark that event appropriately.

Obviously, we hope that that working group can report as quickly as possible. Support for private rented accommodation is one of the 16 interventions that the review of the supersponsor scheme looked at. There are challenges and high levels of competition in the private rented sector in Scotland already, but it is one avenue of potential long-term accommodation that we are looking at supporting Ukrainians to move into.

Of the 32 local authorities, 18 currently offer some form of support through guarantee schemes for the private rented sector, and we are looking at what more we might be able to do to extend that. As I said, it is part of the review of the supersponsor scheme that Linda Bauld led. We will continue to do that work in concert with my colleague Shona Robison and her housing officials.

That question strikes at the heart of the work that we are doing to try to ensure that people have suitable long-term accommodation to move into from temporary accommodation, whether that is hosted, hotels or on the two ships.

The £50 million fund that the First Minister launched last year has had good take-up so far. Through the projects that have been agreed, close to 750 properties will be brought back into use that could be allocated to Ukrainians. In some cases, they will be dedicated to Ukrainians, but others will also provide legacy accommodation options for domestic homelessness as well. We have a number of applications to that fund in the pipeline from authorities across Scotland.

I would always say that more could be done. I encourage local authorities or owners of buildings that could be repurposed to consider whether something creative, as Mr Ruskell described it, could be done to repurpose those buildings to offer accommodation to respond directly to the situation for Ukrainians and, additionally, to provide legacy accommodation for domestic homelessness.

As Mr Ruskell points out, we are also looking at modular accommodation, and we are not unique in that. The Irish Government already has modular accommodation in use, and the Welsh Government is in the advanced stages of introducing modular accommodation.

We need to look at any and all factors to try to ensure that we are providing appropriate and sustainable accommodation for people arriving from Ukraine. Again, I encourage local authorities, registered social landlords and others to look at empty homes and empty buildings that could be repurposed, and to speak to my colleagues in Government and my officials to see whether a bid can be made for that capital funding to ensure that those properties are brought back into use.

I want to touch on a number of aspects.

First, I reiterate the thanks for, and the appreciation of, the work that is going on in local authorities throughout Scotland to respond. They have had some experience on a smaller scale with the Syrian resettlement work, and resettlement officers throughout Scotland have done an exemplary job in supporting hosts and Ukrainians and ensuring that everything possible is done to facilitate schooling, housing and so on. We have had very close co-operation with individual local authorities directly, as members would expect, and through the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, which we have regular meetings with at the ministerial and senior official levels.

Ms Minto is right about recognising and celebrating the fact that Ukrainians who arrive here bring cultural diversity with them. That is something that we celebrate in Scotland, and we should not take it for granted. We need to ensure that that continues to be appreciated.

Work is done by existing and growing Ukrainian community groups. I mentioned the Edinburgh branch of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. There is now a Glasgow branch as well. Hannah Beaton-Hawryluk has been recognised with awards, as has the Ukrainian club in Edinburgh. That is deserved, because they are doing fantastic work to support our work to support Ukrainians who have arrived here to continue to celebrate Ukrainian culture.

I would be more than happy to consider any suggestions from Mr Kuslii or others about what more we can do to support that work and ensure that we are providing the support and the warm welcome that people absolutely deserve.

It will be really challenging because, as we have heard—we know that this will potentially happen with the disembarkation from MS Ambition—people could potentially move to different local authority areas. That will be the case in relation to hosted accommodation, temporary accommodation and long-term accommodation.

The issue could be resolved in relatively simple ways. To be fair, I do not think that the block here lies with my ministerial counterparts with responsibility for Ukraine. I think that the Treasury needs to be encouraged to get this issue and the issue of tariff payments to local authorities resolved, so we will continue to do what we can to impress on it the need for that.